Who We Are

During the past 6 weeks year 4 have been inquiring into the transdisciplinary theme ofWho We Are, learning about how our body systems work together to keep us healthy.

This week we finished our unit by first unpacking our summative assessment task. All expert research teams used a checklist to guide them in presenting their learning and understanding of a chosen body system.

Expert teams collaborated to ensure their presentations:

1.) Identified the parts/organs of their chosen body system (what it looks like).

2.) Explained the function of the system (how it works).

3.) Described how the system is connected to other body systems

4.) Detailed the responsibilities we can take to keep the system healthy.

Students listed the sources used by the team to inform their learning and understanding e.g. Bill Nye and Magic school bus video clips, non-fiction texts, guest-speakers and websites (BrainPop junior).

Teams were encouraged to work cooperatively and commit to having a balanced approach to sharing and completing their tasks. Expectations were for teams to be caring and principled in their support of each other throughout their work processes and thoughtful in their feedback to each other and reflections of their own work.

During the last few weeks students have been developing their thinking and research skills.

Thinking skills (acquisition of knowledge and comprehension):

Students viewed a few videos on the digestive system. In small groups they discussed the parts/organs of the digestive system and how they all work together to digest a meal. Then they drew and labelled their thinking.

After that, students worked in pairs reading an example of an explanatory text – How does the digestive system work?

Next they highlighted words in the text that needed further explanation – we used library books and dictionaries to clarify those words.

Then as a whole class we analysed the features and language of the text and together came up with a checklist for explanation writing (there will be more about writing to explain in a future post).

In Math we worked on another learning engagement from you.cubed.org. Pictures below.

There are FIVE essential elements in the Primary Years Programme curriculum:

Attitudes, Knowledge, Key Concepts, Skills, and Action.

This week we introduced our students to the essential element of Action. We talked about how their learning and understandings will lead them to making connections and taking action.

Authentic and meaningful action needs nurturing and like all the essential elements, action is ongoing and takes time to develop and grow. Action captures the children’s interest and provides opportunities for ongoing learning.

Some thoughts shared by the students about what action means to them were:

….to do something

….to move

… to change something

… to be kind and caring

….to decide

….to share

… to speak

….to listen

….to help someone

….to think about something

Learning about taking responsible, thoughtful and meaningful action is all about who we are. We look forward to the children developing their understanding of what responsible action looks like for them and how they will transfer their understanding to taking action in school, at home and in the wider community.

Math

In Math this week, children from all three classes in Year 4 came together for a collaborative lesson. Their goal was to create 2-D geometrical shapes by cutting them out of a folded piece of paper with just one cut. It began with an inspiring video, Brains Grow and Change, whose message was that there is no such thing as a math brain or a math person! Anyone can learn any level of math with hard work and effort!

Unit Of Inquiry – Reading and Writing

In the unit this week students began finding out about their questions (wonderings) from last week. Students are using library books and charts to do their research. We unpacked the features of a non fiction text:

Captions: help you better understand a picture or photograph

Glossary: helps you define words that are in the book

Graphics: are used to help you understand what the author is trying to tell you

Illustrations/Photographs: help you to know exactly what something looks like

Index: this is an alphabetical list of ideas/keywords that are in the book. It tells you what page the idea is on.

Labels: these help you identify a picture or a photograph and its parts.

Maps: help you to understand where places are in the world

Special print: when a word is bold, in italics, or underlined, it is an important word for you to know

Subtitles: these headings help you to know what the next section will be about

Table of Contents: helps you identify key topics in the book in the order they are presented

Our school librarian, Ms Anton, hosted all year 4 classes and gave us a much needed orientation session of the layout of the different sections and new locations of texts (fiction and non-fiction) in the library.

We reviewed the guiding number system chart and were introduced to the new picture symbols and colour codes used to help us find the books we would like to read.

We were reminded of some of the procedures and practices used when choosing and taking books from the library. The children were then invited to take action and select a fiction and non-fiction text to check out for their own use.

The year 4 teachers checked out a collection of non-fiction texts, which focus on human body systems. These books will be used to support the children’s inquiries and learning throughout our Who We Are unit.

We look forward to seeing the children become experts at using the library as a primary resource for their own learning, curiosities, adventures and enjoyment throughout the year.

In class the students began inquiring into our first unit, Who We Are. So far the students have engaged with a multitude of resources in all 3 classrooms, practicing a Visible Thinking routine, I see, I think, I wonder. Some of their wonderings are..

I wonder how the brain works?

How many bones does a skeleton have?

How does the heart work?

I wonder how the brain gets messages?

What does saliva do?

Students also shared their prior knowledge of body systems as you can see in the photos below…what body parts do you know? What body systems do you know? How are they connected?

This week students in Year 4 began inquiring into our first unit for the year. You will find the learning outcomes for this unit here – WHO WE ARE.

Some learning from the week :

We hope the students will build upon their knowledge and understanding from the unit in Year 3, which looked at different types of health. We look forward to collaborating with Dr Nazneen in this unit to ensure the students develop an understanding of human biology.

Our language links will include reading and writing explanatory reports about body systems, how they are connected and learning how to present information in a variety of ways. Ms Anton, in the library, will be supporting the students’ research skills and helping them find the features of different explanatory texts.

Some of our mathematics will be taught through the unit, using Data Handling to collect and record information including heart rates, height, PE records of distances they can run and throw and timing themselves carrying out various physical activities. The PE department will be working closely with us on this unit.

If you have, or know of anyone who has some expertise in this area, please let us know! We would love to have more guest speakers to share ideas and information with the students.

We look forward to hearing about the action your children may take as a result of the learning in this unit.

About Us

Welcome to our blog! We are a year 4 class in the Primary Years Programme (PYP) at LIS Angola. We aim to use this blog to share our learning with our LIS community and beyond. You are welcome to leave questions and comments. Thanks for dropping by!